If I had a dollar for every time someone referred to email marketing as “cheap,” well, I wouldn’t have to worry about being cheap anymore. The word “cheap” has negative connotations, none of which apply to email marketing. At iContact, when we think about email marketing, we prefer the phrase “cost-effective” because no other form of online marketing delivers the same “bang for your buck” as email.

Don’t Call Us Cheap

While it is possible to manage a small list of email addresses for less than the cost of a couple of coffees at your local Starbucks, iContact also helps organizations of all shapes and sizes manage email lists of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of users. Lists of this size cost considerably more to manage but still represent amazing value when you compare and contrast the cost and efficiency of email to paid search, social media advertising, traditional print and broadcast media, and even selling on eBay and Amazon.

Note: If you are serious about email marketing, you’ll also need to factor in the cost of an email marketing professional to help you get the most out of your list. While this will cost you money, a more professional and strategic approach to email marketing will drive greater efficiencies and a higher return on investment.

Zero Waste

It’s perhaps because so many marketers perceive email marketing as cheap that they don’t take too much notice of any inefficiencies in their strategies – and this can have a detrimental impact on the value they place on what should be the most efficient and effective (in terms of ROI) method of marketing available to them today.

To help marketers maximize the value of their email marketing lists, we’ve compiled the following tips to ensure they remain big senders and not big spenders.

4 Tips to Drive Email Marketing Efficiencies for Big Senders

Segment Your Lists: This isn’t just a rookie mistake. As your list grows, a lack of segmentation can cause you big problems. Untargeted sends will lead to list fatigue and an increase in removal requests and spam complaints. Large list owners risk disenfranchising large numbers of people with each untargeted send. If only 1 percent of recipients in a 50,000-person list chooses to no longer engage with your sends, that’s a loss of 500 potential customers.

Reengage Contacts: Your list might not be as big as you think it is. The average email address has a lifespan of approximately 18 months. This means you may be sending campaigns to old, unmonitored and unresponsive addresses. While email marketing is very cost-efficient, it becomes very expensive if you are sending campaigns with no hope of engagement. Keep on top of your old contact details and try to reengage unresponsive contacts before removing them from your list.

Conduct Thorough Testing: Another lesson from the beginner’s guide to email marketing that is routinely ignored. You might think your email marketing is doing OK, but a series of test sends, trials of new subject lines, body content, designs or calls to action could completely change your opinion of what success looks like. Remember, a test never fails if you learn something from the experience.

Outsource: We get it, you’re busy and might struggle to find the resources to manage your email marketing lists and campaigns in house. Professional, strategic help doesn’t have to cost the earth. Speak to us today to learn how iContact’s team of email marketing professionals can help you maximize the potential from your list and deliver unbelievable efficiencies from your campaigns.

Read the latest from our blog

With just days to go before the new European Union Global Data Protect Regulation (more commonly known as GDPR) comes into effect, there has never been more focus on email marketing in the news and on social media. Understandably, marketers are concerned about compliance, and if you’re not sure whether your MORE…

I’m not a BIG fan of the BIG marketing campaign. I would much prefer to work on a continuous flow of bite-size campaigns that drive a constant flow of traffic into my business than gamble on the success of one BIG, expensive marketing extravaganza. The problem with BIG campaigns is MORE…

Do you suffer from email marketing–related anxiety? It’s a common malady, normally identified by a quickening of the pulse, a dry mouth and sweaty palms prior to hitting the send button on your latest email campaign. No Cure While there is no cure for email marketing–related anxiety (and it may MORE…